Ask Me Help Desk - Visitation rights

Hello everyone. I'm currently having trouble with my ex wife letting me have my time with our 2 1/2 year old son. We currently have a court order in place that says I should have him every other weekend and Thursday nights on the week I don't have him. So one week I should have him Thursday night and the next week I have him the weekend. I have been paying her $500 child support every month ( never late ) since day one before we even had a court order in place. Recently I went to our local courthouse to file for CONTEMPT OF A COURT ORDER, which was the step I needed to make to take her to court so she could get her slap on the hand. Suddenly my attempt came to a hault when the clerk told me I could not file because our court order was set in another County. She told me that I could only file it in that County, which is not in local driving distance. We currently both live in the same county. What I should I do next? Somebody please help.

Hello everyone. I'm currently having trouble with my ex wife letting me have my time with our 2 1/2 year old son. We currently have a court order in place that says I should have him every other weekend and Thursday nights on the week I don't have him. So one week I should have him Thursday night and the next week I have him the weekend. I have been paying her $500 child support every month ( never late ) since day one before we even had a court order in place. Recently I went to our local courthouse to file for CONTEMPT OF A COURT ORDER, which was the step I needed to make to take her to court so she could get her slap on the hand. Suddenly my attempt came to a hault when the clerk told me I could not file because our court order was set in another County. She told me that I could only file it in that County, which is not in local driving distance. We currently both live in the same county. What I should I do next? Somebody please help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDB1028

Hello everyone. I'm currently having trouble with my ex wife letting me have my time with our 2 1/2 year old son. We currently have a court order in place that says I should have him every other weekend and thursday nights on the week i dont have him. So one week I should have him thursday night and the next week I have him the weekend. I have been paying her $500 child support every month ( never late ) since day one before we even had a court order in place. Recently I went to our local courthouse to file for CONTEMPT OF A COURT ORDER, which was the step I needed to make to take her to court so she could get her slap on the hand. Suddenly my attempt came to a hault when the clerk told me I could not file because our court order was set in another County. She told me that I could only file it in that County, which is not in local driving distance. We currently both live in the same county. What I should I do next? Somebody please help.

Thanks for the reply. You are not the first person to tell me this. I will definitely look into that. I guess sometimes I worry about what's going to happen in the meantime. Will I get to see him. I have also gone to the local police to see if they could escort me to pick up my son. One police officer was very nice and went through a similar situation himself. He told me if I call him when I go pick my son he would come with me and said I will leave with my son because I have a courtorder. Does the police have the power to do this. I hate to cause a big scene, but I just want my time with my son.

File a motion for a change of venue. You may have to file in the other county, but once its moved, you can keep to your current county.

File your contempt in the county where the order is in place for visitation.
It can take weeks to get to court anyway, and maybe just the filing will do some good.

No the police have no power, but he can be a witness that she refuses and can testify in court for you.

Ok I'm back. Thank you SCOTTGEM and FR_CHUCK for your replys.

So I tried calling the courhouse in the county where my court order is in place and didn't get to far. I wanted to find out how I should go about filing motion for change of venue through the mail because its not a short drive away (about 160 miles ). I was told on the phone I could retrieve the form online, they gave me the website. I could not find the form. I'm starting to realize that the amount of help you receive over the phone when calling the courts really depends on who answers. Some seem to know what they are talking about then others, and many are quik to say " we can not give you legal advice". All I need to know is the proper procedure to file the forms.

In yesterdays post I left out the following information. My ex-wife and I never lived in the county or near the county where our divorce/visitation/child support papers were filed. Wanting to save as much money as possible we used this website that handeled divorce (divoreez.com if I recall ) online, very affordable ($700 total). We heard about it on the local news, and the office was pretty local (one county away). Everything worked out great, except for the fact that the divorce was filed in a totally different county then ours and their's. Why? I have no idea, but its now come back to haunt me.

Making calls to my local courthouse and the other county courthouse, I have found out that there is a fee for reopening my case ($50), and another fee ($256) for transferring my case . I didn't think this was going to cost this much. I'm started to think would it just be easier to forget about the change of venue, and just file for visitation rights in our local courthouse, even though I already have an existing court order in the other county. Seems ridiculous that I should have to do this, but it seems easier. Is this even possible? Need more guidance please help.

Not sure, the rules vary from jurisdiction. You just need to ask the court.

Thanks I will definitely try. But definitely easier said then done. Like I mentioned in the previous post. When ever I call I have to keep my questions short and sweet if I don't they seem to think I'm lookding for legal advice. I should probably go in person, clerks seem to help more when you do. Thanks for the reply, I love this website. Anyone else have any ideas?

You must have better clerks than I normally meet, they are not helpful in person but worst over the phones, But good luck anyway.

Sometimes there is a large price to pay for not having a lawyer. You may find a policeman or deputy sheriff to meet you at her home. She is likely to view this as high-handed intimidation on your part, but it may work. Make certain you have a copy of your paperwork to show the law.